The technical field of invention relates to devices for dispensing bottled drinking water. More particularly, the present invention pertains to devices and methods for dispensing drinking water using standard sized bottled drinking water.
The design of most commonly available water dispensers includes a receiving device for gravitationally a holding three- or five-gallon bottle of drinking water, a small reservoir through which the drinking water passes and in which the water is either heated or chilled by active components (heating and/or cooling coils), a spigot for dispensing the water, and a vertical cabinet containing the aforementioned components plus associated compressors and related components. Most of the dispensers currently available are floor models, although tabletop or countertop units have recently been produced.
All of these prior designed water dispensers are suitable only for stationary or static location applications and are not suitable for truly portable use. None of the currently available dispensers can be transported as one would transport a typical cylindrical style cooler/container, and none are suitably configured or appropriately integrated into the design of vehicle utility compartments or toolboxes such as the toolboxes currently available for use with pickup trucks.
Instead of using bottled water dispensers, contractors, road construction crews, and others routinely needing a source of drinking water at a job site are currently using the cylindrical type coolers/containers strapped to their truck utility box or simply thrown in the back of such vehicles used at job sites. The water dispensed by such containers is typically not cooled except for perhaps an initial quantity of ice that is mixed into the water to be dispensed or additional ice periodically added to the water to be dispensed.
Consequently, the water to be dispensed by such containers is typically mixed in with the cooling ice and easily becomes tainted by any flavors or impurities contained in the ice. The water may become contaminated by dirty ice, handled ice, and so forth. Further, the container may become contaminated over time since water is typically added to such containers using available water supplies, commonly a garden hose or available bucket, which may themselves be contaminated.
In addition to frequently unsanitary methods of refilling these water coolers/containers (at job sites), a substantial number of coolers used at job sites are simply not cleaned in a manner or frequency capable of ensuring a reasonable level of sanitation. More often than not, job site coolers that have become fouled are simply rinsed out with water and refilled with water from a garden hose or bucket. As a result, these job site water containers remain unsanitary and provide convenient breeding grounds for harmful bacteria, viruses, and diseases.
The health hazards of unsanitary drinking water are apparent. At job sites, productivity may be adversely affected by workers sickened or made ill due to unsanitary drinking water. Job site foremen have complained of workers becoming sick during the work day potentially due to unsanitary drinking water, a lack of available clean drinking water, and so on. Job site workers have expressed a need for clean drinking water at job sites and for water that is cooled.
What is needed, therefore, is a different style of water dispenser. What is needed is an improved drinking water dispenser with improved sanitation.
The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.